Good News

So last time I posted, I was one day away from what I now know to be called a lithotripsy (that's how it sounds, but perhaps not how it's spelled). Basically they were going to send sound waves at my kidney to break up a large stone. I expected to be in a lot of pain for a long time, mostly because that's what usually seems to happen, and my urologist said I would be. I was obviously in pain the day of the surgery. I felt like I fell into a doorknob or something. It was really sore, but it didn't look like a bruise. It was more of a scrape. I was scabbed for about a week. Initially the scab was a little larger than the size of a coaster. The day after the surgery, I felt virtually no pain at all. A little soreness but nothing else. The next three days or so I felt as if I was passing kidney stones. But the percocet mostly killed the pain, and I have been pain free since then. Believe it or not, I think it is safe to call the surgery a success! Good news for me ... and my urologist.

Now on to more mundane matters of the short-gut variety. While I was away at school, and even the first few weeks of my summer at home, I usually got a stomach ache late in the evening, after dinner. Being a nineteen-year-old boy who tries to be perceived as normally as possibly, when I eat a meal, I eat larger portions than, say, my mother or sister would eat. And I always, of course, cleaned my plate. But for some reason in the last few weeks, I have found myself eating dinner, reaching the point where I feel content, and, instead of cleaning my plate on principle, I have been leaving food on the table. I must say, I have felt better at night. The grumbling that used to be a staple of post-dinner relaxation has subsided, allowing me and the fam to focus on what's really important: whatever we are watching on TV. Ha.

I have also been having other positive reinforcement lately. Since going down 20 1/2 months ago, my doctors have advised me to keep on eye on my weight. I lost about 25 pounds in the two days following the vovulus. In the six months after, I gained 20 pounds with the help of the Leash. In the two months after coming off TPN, I lost those 20 pounds. I have been almost completely level since then. Not losing any, but certainly not gaining. I was always slightly below the nearest 10 pound mark. Every once in awhile I would venture above that level for a day, maybe two, but would quickly drop back to where I was. But get this, it has now been over a week since I was below that mark. Which means, I think I may be gaining a little weight. Knock on wood.

My family says I look better too, even since coming home for the summer. They say my face looks fuller, and I am standing up straighter. The posture is one thing that really bothers me. Growing up, I was always the short one. Always. I was 5 feet even on my first day of high school. Naturally, I always wanted to be taller. This resulted in tremendous posture throughout my entire life. I was always doing everything I could to appear taller: back straight, shoulders back, chin up. But after my abdominal surgery, my abs were incredibly sore. So I slouched. Back hunched, shoulders rolled forward, elbows back. I have made conscious efforts to improve this for the past year, which is when I really started to feel a little normal again because I no longer had the catheter in my chest.

In sporting news, the Indians are a poor excuse for a baseball team. That's not so good news.

My sister and I are going to the midnight showing of Harry Potter tonight at the local cinemas. I remember the first time I became aware of the Potter series. I was in fourth grade: ten years ago. The fourth book had just been released, and I was just reaching the reading level necessary to read the early books. I read the first four in the summer between fourth and fifth grades. When the fifth one came out, I read it in about two weeks. Then the sixth one came out. For some reason I bought it, but never read it. I'm not sure why. Then it came time for the seventh book to be released, so I needed to read the sixth one. I read it in three days. In the town just north of where we live, they had a big Potter-themed festival culminating in the midnight-release of the seventh book. A few friends and I went. It sounds kind of lame, but it was so much fun. I got home around one in the morning, sat down, and read about 200 pages. That day, my mom, sister, and I were driving to Chicago for a softball tournament my sister was in. I finished the book during the six-hour ride. That was the summer of 2007, so I was in between junior and senior years in high school. So, yea, I read the seventh book in a twenty-four hour period, not to brag or anything. Ha.

I guess the point is, I've been a Harry Potter fan since I was in fourth grade, which was ten years ago. Since I am 19, that is more than half my life. And the final movie isn't set to be released until 2011. Which will make me 21. And I will be as pumped as ever to go watch a movie about wizardry in the fantasy world created by J.K. Rowling. And let's face it, it won't be released in 2011. It will be pushed back at least until the summer of 2012, which means I will be 22. I can't wait. Although, I would be more excited if there were another book in the series than I am about the movies. Not that the books are great literature. Trust me, they aren't. They're just creative, interesting, and engrossing. I doubt that a hundred years from now Harry Potter will be a staple in high school British Literature courses. But maybe that what they said a hundred years ago about Frankenstein and Dracula. "They're entertaining stories about monsters, but I would be surprised if they last past our generation."

Other good news about the new film: the Vatican approves of this one because one of the major themes of the final episodes is the good should and will overcome evil. So even though Rowling never hints at the existence of a transcendent being, Hogwarts is no longer a home to sinners destined to walk the primrose path to an everlasting bonfire. So good news for Harry and the lot of them. And good news for those who have heard the Good News: we no longer have to confess to enjoying a work of fiction that is not supposed to be real at all. I think that's about all I have to say for now.

Until next time, mischief managed. -IW